Where is the Memory for the Universe?

How does a particle know that it is a particle? We can ascribe properties to things like electrons photons which are shared properties that seem to apply to ALL such particles, and which are different from other particles which are not of the same kind. If this is the case, then each electron must have a way of knowing that it is in fact an electron.

In programming, we might implement this as a data structure. An object of that class would share a pattern of design which has those properties "baked in". We would instantiate these classes into objects, which could all share properties. This would have to be done in memory, and each electron would take up a certain amount of memory.

If all electrons are the same, then they must share some kind of 'memory', either in the form or a reference to the value or in the form of a copy of the value, or some kind of subimplementation which would also rely on 'memory' (say, if electrons were determined one day to be composite particles, then the properties of those particles would have the same necessity). If this were not the case, then all electrons would be different, even if subtly so.

This concept of universal memory is was broached by the Theosophists. Far from being scientific realists or or materialists, the Theosophists were (and are) a spiritualist group who believe some pretty wild new-age stuff. I highly recommend looking into this strange group, particularly Madame Blavatsky, Rudolph Steiner, and the modern theosophic society, which still exists today. They posited the existence of the "Akashic record", which is essentially an immaterial collection of all events which had ever happened. Apparently some people can access this 'record', though it is supposed to be difficult.

Whether this record exists as the Theosophists claim, or in some other manner, let's imagine that there is an Akashic record for our purposes of explaining why it is that electrons seem to know what they are. This Akashic record would at least need to contain the locations of all particles, what these particles are, and the functions of the particles as they interact with each other through space and time. Now we are getting somewhere!

How deep does the memory go? The Theosophists' Akashic record has the complete past, present, and future of the universe. In this, it represents a record which accesses the data found in the B-theory of time. In B-theory, all states exist equally, and just because we happen to be progressing through these states in a specific direction at a specific velocity, and just because we happen to be at a location consciously, none of this means that the location we are at is any more real than the locations we were once at or the locations we will be at. We will call this B theory analogous Akashic record "the B-Akashic record", or just "the B-Akashic". Time in the B-Akashic record is just another dimension. I don't know how many terabytes the B-Akashic record for our universe needs to store all of this information, but obviously it must be enormous! Past states, present states, and future states, all accessible at the same time! We know where every particle came, where it is, and everywhere it will be until its destruction.

When we are creating a program, we have a limited amount of memory, and rather than store every single state that has ever existed in a program, we prefer to simply alter the present state. If we do this with the Akashic record, suddenly it loses all of its past, and its future is as yet uninstantiated. The A-theory of time is represented here, and the A-Akashic record is simply a state machine that represents the present. I don't see any physical reason why this can't be the case -- that the functions which determine the next state of the universe 'overwrite' the previous state of the universe -- though it does make me a little sad to lose all that good stuff from the past (not to mention rendering time travel quite impossible). We have only the states of every particle currently in existence with essentially no clue how they got there.

The third form of Akashic record might be something more like Bitcoin's blockchain. The blockchain records all transactions which have ever taken place from the beginning of the blockchain, and uses those transactions to get to the present state of the block-chain. With this form of the Akashic record, we have a different time theory. I'll call it A½-theory of time, in which the past up to now does in fact exist, but the future does not yet exist. Our new record, the A½-Akashic record, now stores the complete states of the universe up until now, and no further. The present does have a special status, which is the current iteration of the state, but each prior state at one point had this same special status. Armed with this A½-Akashic record, know where every particle was and where every particle is, but not where they will be.

So far our imagining of these Akashic records has not broached the subject of free will, or of "multiple futures". Let's get a little crazier. Our B-theory Akashic record seems to imply that there is really only one possible future state, but we could just as well state that it includes all possible future states. This would, I think, still be a "B-theory" of time, but we might call this our B½-Akashic record, because if there is even 2 different possible futures, it must a larger memory state. Unlike our deterministic B-Akashic record, the B½ record includes possible future states from the past which never existed. Essentially, it is all states which can exist from a given starting state, not only those that will exist.

If multiple futures, why not multiple pasts? Let's posit an Akashic record that includes all possible start states of the universe as well as all possible future states given those start states. This is larger than a universe which contains only one start state. This Akashic record will be called our C-Akashic. This doesn't perfectly match with C-theory, which argues for the adirectionality of time, but I don't care! I like C-Akashic, it fits neatly, so it stays! The C-Akashic has all possible start states, and all potential future states. This record would contain all things which might exist not just in a universe, but in a complete multiverse. This is an immense record, and it would seem to be about as massive as possible, but I think we can imagine one record larger.

The D-Akashic. All possible states. What makes this record any different? Well, this is not just potential states. This is every state which could possibly be, not just those that could potentially be reached. For some imagined universes or multiverses to which this sense of a record might apply, the C-Akashic and the D-Akashic are To explain the difference, we need to recognize that whatever function is applied to to a state may never be capable of achieving a particular state given the start state parameters. This is where we need to start formalizing some of these ideas to better understand them (which may have served us better earlier!) In future posts I will go into supplemental Akashic record types, and look at some of the mathematics of how these records might with different types of universes.

Comments

I hope you enjoyed this little rambling on philosophy. As an amateur speaking outside of a formal setting, I use interchangeably some words which do not strictly mean the same thing, but which represent broad patterns of thought in philosophy. Feel free to get mad about that and correct me as you wish!